Mowbray & Sullivan - Tropical Heights

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  • James Mowbray must not get much sleep. He is an editor at Mixmag, he is a promoter, he is a DJ, and yet he still finds time to make music that never hints at fatigue. His second release on Four:Twenty is likewise full of energy: Produced with studio buddy Leiam Sullivan, 'Tropical Heights' is an uplifting house number whose fluttering melodies and euphoric waves lull you into a sense of bliss, that is until a wall of bass gets poured into the mix. Surprisingly, this heavy-handed tactic only enhances the hypnotic quality of the track, and when it’s finished, you feel better for the journey. On the B-side, Copenhagen art-DJs Ink & Needle take the track to Detroit, focusing on simple stabs of melody and rumbling kicks to create a nice minimal techno effort worthy of any large sound stage. It does lose clarity though when the fluttering melodies of the original get added to the tougher framework, but luckily for us there is a second remix which doesn’t include the flowery synths, leaving only techno goodness. Admittedly, these tracks did nothing for me on first listen. They seemed like mid-nineties throwbacks, rehashing themselves for an unknown audience. But after a few plays, their uniqueness peeks through. This uniqueness has become a trademark of Four:Twenty, and Mowbray and Sullivan don’t let the team down one bit.
  • Tracklist
      A Tropical Heights (Original Version) B1 Tropical Heights (Ink & Needle Remix) B2 Tropical Heights (Ink & Needle Cut Remix)
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